July 30, 2013

I do give a fig...

I love figs. I like them fresh, dried, fig ice cream, poached in syrup, jam...however fig can be enjoyed, I love it!...I even like Fig Newtons!

The figs above were bought at a farmers market. The vendor said they were Kadota

For many years, we lived in a house in my hometown in Cuba that had an old, big fig tree in the back patio. I cannot remember a time I didn't like figs.

During the Christmas holidays, dried figs were imported by the 'tiendas de viveres finos' (what we would now call gourmet food stores), from the region of Extremadura in Spain...These are thin skinned and luscious even after drying...We could have fresh figs in summer and dried figs in winter...oh, joy!

When we lived at the Inn, here in our village, there was a very old fig tree in the back yard that only yielded a handful of figs each season and it was a contest to see if the birds or I could get to them first. Most of the time, the birds won.

A few years after we moved to this property, I planted a small fig plant. It would do ok for a while and then it would begin to die on me. I moved it two or three times thinking a different location might work...I planted it in a large planter to see if maybe it would do better there...nothing would work.

After we started working on the "new garden", we repoted it and moved it to a different location and all of a sudden the little fig just took off!

Now we even have a few figs and one is almost ripe...so exciting. Our first figs!

Meantime, I bought some figs from a friend who lives just a few miles north of us. The figs are nice, plump and delicious.

Above - Sautéing a few figs in butter and brown sugar to caramelize them...Serve them with Macadamia Nut Ice Cream.